Personal or portable electronic devices such as smart phones, tablets, portable media players, and e-book readers are now a staple of everyday life. At any one moment, a user can view a video streamed from the internet, dictate a shopping list to be played back at the grocery store, film a family vacation, play a digital song from a music library, or listen to a best-selling audiobook with one of today's personal electronic devices. It seems that the few limitations of these devices, such as external noise interfering with personal audio or potential intrusiveness upon others from sounds emanating from the devices, are imposed by the user's environment. Therefore to take full advantage of the portability and enhance the personal experiences provided by these devices, users will often pair their portable devices with headphones. Using such systems, users can enjoy the full panoply of features of their personal electronic devices in nearly any environment and at nearly any time.
Headphones come in several form factors, including over-ear or on-ear, which are placed outside of the ear, and in-ear, which are worn inside the ear. In-ear headphones can include ear buds, which may be located in the opening of the ear, or canal headphones, which are intended to be situated further inside the ear canal. In-ear headphones may be preferable to over-ear or on-ear headphones because in-ear headphones can be lighter and more compact. For some users, in-ear headphones can be much less obtrusive than over-ear or on-ear headphones. Conventional in-ear headphones, however, may be more easily misplaced and more likely to become damaged because of their relatively small size. Other users may prefer in-ear headphones because of their relative superior performance. In-ears, for example, may be better at blocking external noise than over-ears or on-ears because in-ears can form tighter seals by virtue of being positioned inside the ears. Users can listen to audio at lower volumes with in-ear headphones than over-ear or on-ear headphones if the in-ear headphones can provide a substantially tight seal not otherwise possible with over-ears or on-ears. Some users may not be able to immediately obtain the full performance benefits provided by conventional in-ear headphones, such as multi-channel stereo sound. Still others may prefer the fit of in-ear headphones over on-ear and over-ear headphones but there may not be a readily accessible and convenient location for conventional in-ear headphones when the speakers are not in use.